I remember my first year as a camper well, and my last. The years in between kind of blur together.
My friend Audrey and I went to camp together for the first time during the summer of '89. I admit we were dumb and naive our first week. Gimp just blew us away, and the thought of misplacing our canteen cards seemed worse than death itself.
My dad was our day group counselor that year. He said it was just a coincidence, and I actually bought that. I thought my counselor Jeannie was so old and grown-up. I was like, 'Wow someday I'll be that old too.' Looking back on it Jeannie was a college student, which I will be as well this fall. Something I remember about that year was that the five girls in my group all painted our nails the same color. I don't know why that stands out as a memory, probably because we wanted to be just like each other. Something else came out of that first week of camp months later. I received and sent my first Christmas cards from someone other than a family member.
I remember Josh (a counselor) particularly, because he had the reputation of never getting up on time, snoring really loudly, missing breakfast, and then (when he finally did get to Grace Hall) dowing a couple gallons of coffee. At the time I thought, 'What if that guy was the dean?' Six years later I was a first time counselor for.................... Josh. For the record, he was an awesome dean.